Keeping my Own Time at Modify

Posted, September 21, 2011

[Liz Callahan reporting, from the Berkeley trenches]
Time, time, time - you would think at a watch company, we have this down...But, managing my time at Modify is a little like deciding what to plug into a power strip. There are only so many plugs that can receive power at the same time, so choices must be made.
Sometimes it seems like a good idea to “daisy chain” two power strips together, but as the Office of Compliance says: “…doing so can cause them to become overloaded, this electrical current overload can result in a fire or can cause a circuit breaker to trip, deenergizing computers and other equipment throughout the area.”
In this case, that circuit breaker would be my brain. And I really don’t want that to happen…I am a bit skittish since that: this is drugs, this is your brain on drugs campaign.
So how do you decide what four or five things deserve your focus at any one time? I think it is a mix of prioritization and thinking two steps ahead. The big ticket items for Modify like: customer service, finance tracking, and manufacturing are constants – they always get a plug and could easily take up all day, every day.
To fill the remaining (and very limited) space, you must understand what smaller tasks need attention now to avoid headache later. It is easy to push something off that doesn’t require immediate attention, but those led to fires down the road that may actually be too big to put out.
So, I leave my remaining plugs open for some limited attention every day - not a huge power pull. Knock out those up and coming mini-projects now, with balance, to ensure smooth sailing when their deadlines do hit...at least as often as you can....